Architecture for a lifeboat world: examining the scale shift between master planning and the pedestrian

Edmonton, Alberta is a city of perpetual change. This continues with the quest for sustainability, as the City

has committed itself to re-develop the lands of the municipal airport, which is intended to become a model

neighbourhood for 30,000 residents. The current proposal calls for a pedestrian oriented, intensive mixed-use

urbanism, except this appears as a site wide strategy of homogeneous zones with a reliance on public

transportation. Sustainability cannot be achieved without pedestrianization. A new method of design is required

that represents a combination of Master Planning and Architecture. Both examine the same central ideas, but from

different perspectives. A circular, multidisciplinary process is required so that each discipline can influence and

respond to the other. The proposal is, to use research and design to demonstrate the connection between master

planning and architecture, and by doing so suggest a different mode of thinking that could lead to a pedestrian

environment for the ECCA.